So here I am, back from G-Anime in Gatineau, Quebec.

Wouldn't you know it, we made it up there for the warmest days of winter! Lucky us! XD

We arrived at the time of year for Ottawa/Gatineau's annual winter festival: Winterlude. Unfortunately we didn't get to participate in it at all being busy with the convention. Still, here's the ice sculpture at the front of the hotel where we stayed.



The convention was very small compared to others I've attended. Then again I'm accustomed to Anime North which is one of the larger conventions in North America. There were only about ten artists participating in the artists alley, and we shared the same room as the dealers.

At first I was nervous about attending such a small convention, since I wasn't sure if I would be able to break even in terms of sales and expenses. Thankfully I was able to come home in the black with a bit of a profit.

I sold a good deal of the kanzashi I brought with me, which means I will have to make more for Anime North in May.

We had a lot of fun this weekend, and one of my friends who lives in Gatineau even visited with us for a while.

I've actually volunteered to head up the kimono display at Anime North in May, and G-anime gave me the chance to talk to a few more fairly local people willing to lend kimono and give a helping hand with the display. I just hope, we can find some decent equipment to hang all the kimono. I plan to make the display very interesting and informative.

was actually one of the ladies who volunteered to help out. Here's a shot of her, in her lovely geiko coplay:



On Saturday, I wore my Mizuhiki hikizuri with my cream karabana obi. Unfortunately I forgot to pack my susoyoke, but luckily I had some reddish coloured pants to wear under the kimono, so it didn't look bad without the skirt. Besides, I was sitting behind my table most of the time.



Sunday's outfit consisted of my Tsuruhiki hikizuri with my new phoenix themed fukuro obi.



Originally I had brought these two kimono with plans to layer them, but with carrying things back and forth, and setting up and taking down, I found it was just too difficult to wear them layered. Also, when travelling to conventions I usually end up dressing in my kimono right there in the artists alley just because of the fact that we always have a lot of things to carry and I don't want to damage my kimono.

On another note, a few new items arrived from Japan while I was in Gatineau. I purchased a beautiful, elegant tsujigahana bolt on ebay a while back and it came in the mail. It's just gorgeous! And it will make a perfectly lovely kimono.

Otherwise, I also recieved a very beautiful golden sensu, a yellow hanhaba obi and the remnants of a purple taisho irotomesode, which I plan to use to add a hiyoku to my Kikuaya kimono when I repair it.



And to finish off, I just wanted to show all of you this AWESOME cosplay:


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MY ETSY SHOP

POSTCARDS:


PRINTS:
:thumb4380623: :thumb4436830:

I've also listed the last remaining prints of a few of my recently retired pieces. If you want prints of those, this may be your last chance to get them!

KANZASHI:

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MY GALLERY:

Some of the pieces in my other gallery are now over five years old, or nearing five years old. So take a few minutes to say goodbye to these babies because they will be removed from my gallery at the end of the month. Then they can rest happily and peacefully in their retirement.

Up for retirement on March 1st:


Up for retirement on May 1st:


Prints of some of these pieces are up for sale in my Etsy shop: [link]
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MY PHOTOGRAPHY: [link]

Pictures from Summer and Fall in Killarney 2008:
[link]